1 . The fight is on to get rid of air pollution in our cities. While the best solution in the long-term would be to ban fossil-fueled cars, that won’t help the millions who are dying in the meantime, and so some high-tech solutions are now on the cards.
In March 2016, 10 London pigeons became famous. These pigeons took to the sky from Primrose Hill in north London, wearing backpacks monitoring air pollution. Once in the air, the backpacks sent live air-quality updates to the smartphones of the Londoners below.
The pigeons and their backpacks were just the latest in a series of increasingly desperate attempts to monitor and control air pollution. London’s air pollution problem has been getting worse for years, and it often rises to more than three times the European Union’s legal limit.
Another promising approach can be found in Beijing, after China declared a “war against pollution” in 2014. A seven-metre-high “Smog Free Tower”, designed by a Dutch scientist, Daan Roosegaarde, opened in Beijing’s 751 D Park in September 2016.
It is a huge, outdoor air purifier. Airborne particles (颗粒) are sucked into the tower where they receive a positive charge. The particles are then caught by a negatively charged dust-removal plate and clean air is blown out of the other end. “Changing smog particles does not take much current.” Roosegaarde said.
As for what to do with the collected PM waste, he has currently set up a business making jewellery out of the waste. Prince Charles owns a set of “smog free” cuff links (袖扣). If collected on at a big scale, Roosegaarde believes it could even be used as a building material.
Mexico City has an alternative solution. Looking to Nature to maximize the surface area of a building, Allison Dring, a Berlin - based architect, managed to catch light and wind from all sides. She is now making a building material by burning agricultural crop by-products in the absence of oxygen. “It means that you are actually taking carbon (碳) out of the sky, transforming it into a material, and then using it to build,” says Dring.
The fight against outdoor air pollution is really just starting. Even if none of the ideas take off, at least Prince Charles’ cuff links, the special building surface and pigeons wearing back-packs will have brought the issue more to the public’s attention.
1. The underlined words “on the cards” in para. 1 probably mean ________.| A．hardly to achieve | B．widely questioned | C．very likely to happen | D．publicly welcomed |
| A．monitor air pollution | B．warn Londoners | C．update weather forecast | D．promote backpacks |
| A．It can catch light and wind. | B．Its power consumption is high. |
| C．PM waste from it can be reused. | D．It is the first air purifier in the world. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
2 . If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal (夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.
The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences -- called light pollution -- whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels -- and light rhythms -- to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life is affected.
In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze (霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night -- dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadows on Earth -- is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.
We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet (磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.
Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses. Humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs. Like most other creatures, we do need darkness. Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
Living in a glare of our own making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage-the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night. In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way -- the edge of our galaxy -- arching overhead.
1. According to the passage, human beings ________.| A．prefer to live in the darkness |
| B．are used to living in the day light |
| C．were curious about the midnight world |
| D．had to stay at home with the light of the moon |
| A．provide examples of animal protection |
| B．show how light pollution affects animals |
| C．compare the living habits of both species |
| D．explain why the number of certain species has declined |
| A．light pollution does harm to the eyesight of animals |
| B．light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages |
| C．human beings cannot go to the outer space |
| D．human beings should reflect on their position in the universe |
| A．The Magic Light | B．The Orange Haze |
| C．The Disappearing Night | D．The Rhythms of Nature |
A BBC film crew was working on the remote Lord Howe Island for a new wildlife documentary called Drowning in Plastic. They filmed many birds that
4 . Cleaning the ocean of plastic
These days, we’re all well aware of the plastic problem the world’s facing. Although we all realize what a serious issue plastic pollution is, it’s different when you actually see the overwhelming results of it for yourself.
A team of researchers recently published a study on the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the journal Scientific Reports. According to the study, the patch, which is located off the coast of California in the US, is made up of 79,000 tons of plastic waste. At 1.6 million square kilometers, it’s over four times the size of Japan, or almost 100 times the size of Beijing.
“I’ve been doing this research for a while, but it was depressing to see the patch in person,” Laurent Lebreton, lead author of the study, told The Guardian. “There were things you just wondered how they made it into the ocean. There’s clearly an increasing influx of plastic into the garbage patch.”
It’s believed that eight million tons of plastic ends up in the sea each year, and a lot of it ends up collecting near large ocean currents around the world, forming “islands” of plastic. This causes problems not only for sea creatures, but also for humans. The swirling ocean currents eventually break down some of the plastic, with a lot of it ending up in the stomachs of fish and birds. As a result, it’s believed that plastic has worked its way up the food chain directly onto our plates - not to mention the countless creatures that choke on plastic waste, or are poisoned by the chemicals in it.
So what can we do about this? Lebreton is a member of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a group that’s developed technology to collect plastic waste from the ocean. This is a huge project. The group claims it will take around five years just to clean up half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone. But rather than discourage people from using plastic altogether, Lebreton believes that we should simply be more careful of how we use it. “In my opinion, plastic is very useful ... But I think we must change the way we use plastic, particularly in terms of single-use plastic and those objects that have a very short service lifespan,” he told the BBC.
1. What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch made up of?2. Why does plastic also cause problems for humans?
3. Please paraphrase the following sentence.
It’s believed that the eight million tons of plastic ends up in the sea each year, and a lot of it ends up collecting near large ocean currents around world, forming “islands” of plastic.
4. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Laurent Lebreton thinks that plastic is very useful, but we have to stop using plastic completely to protect the ocean.
5. Please provide at least two suggestions on what we can do to change the way we use plastic. (about 20 words)
5 . We are what we eat, and what we eat reveals something about what we are in return. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that humans are now apparently eating plastic.
A small trial at the Medical University of Vienna found tiny pieces of it in the digestive systems of people from eight different countries. The study involved just eight people and doesn’t tell us what if any effect eating plastic was having on their bodies. We already knew fish were eating plastic. Did we really think it wouldn’t reach back up to the top of the food chain, that the consequences of our own actions couldn’t return to us?
This goes beyond cleaning up the oceans. Six of the eight subjects of the study ate sea not all of them did. Other possible theories involve drinking out of plastic bottle. eating food that’s been wrapped in plastic, or tiny plastic pieces floating in the air which then land on our food. But our environment is so filled now with plastic that it seems that we were going to absorb it somehow.
Does it actually matter? This study can’t answer that question, because all it tells us is that microplastics were found in human wastes. If it’s just passing through the body, then perhaps there’s no damage done. However, if there were evidence of plastics being absorbed and gathering in our internal organs, as some animal studies have suggested, that would potentially be a red flag.
Solving plastic pollution is nowhere near as simple as some campaigners make it sound. Switching away from plastic packaging to other materials would create other environmental dilemmas. Bottling liquids in glass rather than plastic makes them heavier which potentially means more trips to transport them, paper production has a bigger carbon footprint. Even if it were possible to stop using the stuff tomorrow, it would take up to 1,000 years for some of what’s being produced right now to break down.
But just because it’s difficult, it doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders and do nothing. There is something genuinely mad about a society that is on the one hand crazy about the quality of the food we put in our mouths, and yet also mindlessly eats its own garbage. The war on plastic, it seems, just got personal.
1. What does the study show?| A．Food chain is damaged by plastic. |
| B．Eating plastic affects human greatly. |
| C．Plastic is discovered in human bodies. |
| D．Sea fish are the victim of plastic pollution. |
| A．A final result. | B．A warning sign. |
| C．An expected finding. | D．A similar situation. |
| A．It’s impossible to stop using plastic. |
| B．It’s challenging to deal with plastic issue. |
| C．It’s urgent to choose different wrappings. |
| D．It takes time to improve the environment. |
| A．Plastic should be replaced by other materials. |
| B．The damage towards food chain is long lasting. |
| C．The effect of plastic pollution isn’t fully recognized |
| D．The causes of environmental issues are complicated |
Microplastics, referring to plastic fragments and particles (碎片和微粒) less than 5 millimeters in diameter (直径), have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain, according to a recent study published in the journal One Earth. Scientists collected snow and water samples from 19 different
7 . Human activity is changing the surface and temperature of the planet. But new research shows it is also changing the sound of the Earth’s oceans and seas.
Scientists say the changes in the sounds of our oceans and seas affect many marine(海洋) animals—from very small fish to huge whales. Sound travels “very far underwater,” Francis Juanes told the reporter. Juanes is an ecologist at the University of Victoria and co-writer of the recent research published in a magazine. “For fish,” he explained, “sound is probably a better way to sense their environment than light.”
Sounds help fish and other marine animals survive. They use sounds to communicate with each other. Sounds also help some ocean animals find food and avoid their hunters. Many ocean animals use sounds to find good places to give birth. However, increased noise from humans is making it harder for these animals to hear each other. The noise comes from shipping traffic, underwater oil and gas exploration, offshore construction, and other noisy human activity.
“For many marine species, their attempts to communicate are being masked by sounds that humans have produced,” said Duarte. The marine ecologist at the Red Sea Research Center co-wrote the paper with Juanes. The Red Sea, Duarte said, is one of the world’s most important shipping passages. It is full of large ships traveling to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Some fish and other animals, he said, now avoid the noisiest areas. Also, the overall number of marine animals has gone down by about half since 1970. In some parts of the ocean, scientists now record “fewer animals singing and calling than in the past—those voices are gone,” said Duarte.
Juanes and Duarte examined studies and research articles about changes in noise volume(音量) and frequency in the world’s oceans. Then they put together a detailed picture of how the ocean soundscape is changing and how marine life is affected.
Climate change, the researchers found, also affects physical processes that shape ocean sounds. These include such things as wind, waves, and melting ice.
Some studies suggest that noise may cause hearing loss of marine animals. Besides, many marine animals are showing higher levels of stress due to noise, which might also affect the immune(免疫) system.
Scientist Juanes says sound pollution may be easier to deal with than other ocean threats. “In theory,” he said, “you can turn down or turn off the sound immediately. It’s not like plastics or climate change, which are much harder to undo.”
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Sound noise may result in hearing loss of human beings. |
| B．Sound pollution killed most of the marine animals in the Red Sea. |
| C．Sound noise can influence the communication of marine animals. |
| D．Sound is unlikely to be a better way to sense their environment than light. |
| A．Channel. | B．Address. |
| C．Industry | D．Company. |
| A．what is the main cause of climate change |
| B．what should be done to reduce sound pollution |
| C．how to record changes in noise volume and frequency |
| D．how to enhance the immune system of marine animals |
| A．The Future of Oceans Exploration |
| B．The Changes in the Sounds of Oceans |
| C．Sounds Help Marine Animals Survive |
| D．Humans are Making Oceans Too noisy |
It seems like common sense: eating local food should be better for the environment, because it
9 . Plastic pollution has long been a problem, but now it's gotten to a new height literally. Microplastic, referring to plastic fragments and particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter, have been found on Mount Qomolangma as high as 8,440 meters above sea level, just 408.86 meters below the peak of the mountain, according to a recent study published in the journal One Earth.
“These are the highest microplastics ever discovered so far.” lead author Imogen Napper from the University of Plymouth, UK, said in a statement. Scientists collected snow and water samples from 19 different locations from 4,200 meters above sea level all the way up to the summit of Mount Qomolangma. They found microplastics in all the water samples and part of the snow samples. The most polluted sample was from the Base Camp in Nepal, where most human activities on the mountain are concentrated. It had 79 particles of microplastics per liter of snow.
But how have these fragments made it all this way and in such a great abundance? The answer is apparent human activities. It is climbers who bring plastic products to the mountain. Even if they don't litter, just walking for 20 minutes or opening a bottle of water can release microplastics into the environment.
The harsh fact is that plastic pollution has reached even the most remote places on Earth. Researchers even found a plastic bag al the deepest point in the world's oceans—in the Mariana Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean. The bag is the same as the ones commonly used in grocery stores. Even covered in ice, the Arctic is still a victim of plastic pollution. A 2020 report published in Nature suggests that there are 2.000 to 17,000 plastic particles per cubic meter in Arctic ice cores, and between 0 to 18 microplastic particles per cubic meter from the water beneath ice floes. Experts think microplastics may be transported by air and then reach the North Pole in snowfall.
“What we don t yet fully know is the potential problems these tiny pieces of plastic could be having to ecosystems, to organisms and even to our own health as well,” said Christian Dunn of Bangor University, UK. Then what can we do? “We need to start focusing on deeper technological solutions that focus on microplastics, like changing fabric design and including natural fibers instead of plastic when possible.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The polluted samples from the peak were the most serious. |
| B．Plastic pollution has been discovered at high altitudes. |
| C．Humans have .climbed to the peak of Mount Qomolangma. |
| D．Microplastics are a newly-found material by researchers. |
| A．Microplastics may go far beyond the range of human activities. |
| B．The means of microplastics transportation has been confirmed. |
| C．There are frequent exchanges between Arctic ice cores and ice floes. |
| D．Bags from grocery stores are the main source of plastic pollution. |
| A．to prohibit the use of plastic products | B．to diversify the design of microplastics |
| C．to apply only natural fibrous alternatives | D．to develop more advanced technologies |
| A．Litter in the Mariana Trench | B．New One Earth Campaigns |
| C．Pollution Reaches New Height | D．Adventurous Human Activists |
Your writing should include the following three aspects:
| 1. description of the picture; 2. analysis of the picture; 3. lessons from the picture. |
The opening part of the writing is given below.
Save Us, Please!
As can be seen from the picture, ...
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